Joseph ketchum



(N0 ModeL) J. KETOI-IUM.

METHOD OF PRODUCING ARTIFICIAL RESPIRATION.

o o o 0/ Patented June 16, 1885.

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JOSEPH KETCHUM, OF BROOKLYN, NE\V YORK.

METHOD OFPRODUClNG ARTiFlGlAL RESPlRA'TlON.

E'JPEQIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent 3260. 320,069, dated June 16, 1885.

(No model.)

To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, Josnrn KETGHUM, of Brooklyn, in Kings county and the State of New York, have invented a certain new and useful improvement in the Method of Producing Artificial Respiration, of which the following is a specification.

The object of myimprovcincnt is to restore natural respiration when it has ceased or become faint through accidental causes or from disease, and to provide for effectively ad ministering remedial agents or medieameuts to the respiratory organs when necessary, independently of any aid or without the volition of the patient.

My improvement consists in placing a patient in an airtight chamber in any desired position and in alternately increasing and reducing the pressure of air therein relatively to normal atmospheric pressure.

The accompanying drawings illustrate apparatus applicable to my method of treating patients.

Figure 1 is a central vertical section of one form of apparatus. Fig. 2 is a transverse section of the same. Fig. 3 is a central vertical section of an apparatus of slightly modified form. Fig. 4 is a transverse section of the latter.

Similar letters of reference designate corresponding parts in all the figures.

A designates a chamber made of wood or other practically rigid material. It may be of any desirable shape. Preferably it will be of such shape and size that a patient may either be seated or laid down in it. I have shown it as provided with a plate of glass, at, at the front. This will admit light and allow a patient to see beyond the chamber when sitting within the same. The chamber must be air-tight. It has a hinged door, a, controlling an opening through which the entrance and exit of a patient may be made. This door and its doorway will be packed so that air may not enter between them when the door is closed.

B designates a tube made of any suitable material, preferably a flexible material, leading from the interior to the exterior of the chamber. This tube is to be used by a patient while occupying a seat in the chamber. At the inner end it is provided with a nose and mouth cover, b. This may be secured in position on a patients face by a strap, 1). A patient using the tube breathes from and back into the atmosphere outside the chamber. Outside the chamber the tube may communicate with a vessel, so that the air inhaled by the patient will be caused to pass through the vessel, and may thus become charged with a remedial agent or medicament either of a fluid or gaseous character.

An atomizer may be combined with the tube to effect the charging of the air, if desirable, when a liquid is used therein, and a gas-generator may be employed in conj u neti on with the tube when a gas is needed.

The mechanism which is employed to vary the pressure of air within the chamber of the apparatus (shown in Figs. 1 and 2) consists of a flexible diaphragm, C, of rubber, cloth, or analogous material fitted to an aperture, 0, formed in one of the walls of the chamber. Normally, this diaphragm is in the same plane as the wall of the chamber with which it is combined. By forcing it inward the pressure of air within the chamber will be increased relatively to normal atmospheric pressure; but if it is pulled outward the pressure of air within the chamber will be decreased relatively to normal atmospheric pressure. By moving it alternately inward and outward in proper time an artificial respiration of the patient will be produced.

The operation may be effected by the hand of an attendant; but to secure a regularityin the increase and decrease of pressure it will be advantageous to attach a rod, D, to the diaphragm and connect the rod to a crank, E, extending from a rotary shaft, F.

Provision may be afforded for varying the operation to suit a patient by making a series of holes in the crank at different distances from the shaft and connecting the rod to the different holes by a pin, G, passing through the rod and entering one of the holes in the crank.

If it is desirable to vary the increase of pressure relatively to the decrease of pressure in treating different patients, this may be provided for by making a series of holes in the rod so that it may be connected at different portions of its length to the crank.

A brake, H, may be used in conjunction with the shaft to hold the shaft in any position in which it may be left when the operation of the apparatus ceases. Thus the diaphragm may be normally kept in a position in the same plane of the chamber with which it is combined. The brake shown is a weighted lever,which may be swung back when the apparatus is used and dropped on the shaft when the operation of the apparatus is stopped.

The shaft is shown as journaled in brackets R, fastened to the chamber. It may be rotated by a hand-crank.

The apparatus shown in Figs. 3 and 4 has a piston, I, and cylinder J, in lieu of a diaphragm. One end of the cylinder is open to the interior of the chamber and the other to the atmosphere outside the chamber. The piston may be operated by a handle on its rod or by a rod,- D, crank E, shaft F, and brake H, such as I have described. The normal position of the piston will be midway in the length of the cylinder. When moving in one direction from that position it will increase, and when moving in the opposite direction past such position it will decrease, the pressure of air in the chamber relatively to normal atmospheric pressure.

A metronome may be used for a patient to breathe by and the attendant to work by so as to secure synchronous operations,if desirable.

In treating a partly-drowned person, the patient will be laid face downward with the mouth in communication with atube, K, leading outside the chamber, as thus facility will be afforded for removing the water.

The tubes BK will be provided with cocks, so tha ewmay be used at pleasure.

An s for the treatment of partlydrowned pen. might be advantageously made more in the shape of a long shallow box 40 provided with a top cover.

Of course I may use any suitable means for varying the pressure within the chamber in lieu of the means described.

I do not herein claim the combination, with an air-tight chamber suitable for accommodating a patient, of mechanism, substantially such as herein described, for alternately increasing and reducing the air within the 'chamber, as I intend to make the same the subject of a separate application for Letters Patent. V

I am aware that I am notthe first to produce an apparatus wherein apatient occupying .an air-tight chamber having a rarefied atmos- 5 5 phere is caused to breathe from and back into the external atmosphere. I am also aware that a patient occupying an air-tight chamber having an attenuated atmosphere has previous ly been caused to breathe air impregnated with certain liquids intended to act as remedial agents. I do not, therefore, lay any claim here to these features, broadly considered.

-What I claim as my invention, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is l The method of restoring natural respiration, consisting in placing a patient in an air-tight chamber with the respiratory organs in communication with the outside atmosphere, and in alternately increasing and reducing the pressure of air in the chamber relatively to normal atmospheric pressure, substantially as specified.

JOSEPH KETOHUM.

Witnesses:

T. J. KEANE, WILLIAM G. LIPSEY. 

